


Talking Treason

by shadow_djinni



Series: All The Stars Aligned [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Haxus Mini Event 2017, Loyalty/Betrayal, specifically discussions of the latter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 14:18:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12608508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_djinni/pseuds/shadow_djinni
Summary: For the Haxus Mini Event on Tumblr.Sometimes, to get what you want, you have to be prepared to break the rules.





	Talking Treason

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know--I should be working on NaNoWriMo and I still owe yesterday's chapter of St. Erasmus' Fire, but how could I resist?

“Vrepit sa,” Haxus mutters, resting his closed fist over the center of his chest.  The words leave a foul, bitter taste in the back of his mouth, like old blood and resentment.

His commander acknowledges him with a returned salute and turns his back, to continue pouring over the incident reports with his lieutenant.  It’s a very clear dismissal, and Haxus slips out the bridge doors as soon as he can.  Gods, but he’s beginning to loathe Commander Yurak.  He was hardly competent--how he’d made commander, Haxus would never know.  Nepotism, likely as not.  

Ugh.

His feet take him down twisted, narrow hallways with hardly a thought.  Navigating a light cruiser is confusing for new soldiers, but his sense of direction has always been acute.  He can patrol the ship bow to stern in his  _ sleep _ at this point, if he chooses.  But he’s not on patrol now--it’s not his shift, not for another three vargas.  He has another location in mind.  And he’s far from happy about it.

He reaches the brig in record time, looking around for any of his crewmates’ presences, and opens the door.  Haxus hates the brig, for a number of reasons: it’s more cramped than the rest of the ship, it usually stinks, and the cruiser he was trained on allowed a prisoner to die in transit.  He’d been part of the detail in charge of clearing out the cell.  He has another reason to hate the brig, now.  He raps lightly on the first cell door.

“Haxus?”

Never has he been so relieved to hear Sendak’s voice.

“Are you alright in there?” he asks, leaning up against the cold, heavy door to make his words as clear as possible.  He imagines Sendak doing the same on the other side.

“Am I alright,” Sendak huffs.  A pause, long enough that Haxus thinks he’s not going to answer.  Then Sendak says, “...It could be worse.”

“Commander Yurak told me he has no intentions of contacting the administrators over your, quote, indiscretion,” Haxus says.

Sendak sighs with relief.  “I’ve been waiting for them to come for me since they put me in here.  For him to decide I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”  His tone says he hasn’t been waiting.  He’s been  _ dreading _ it.

Haxus knows the rules.  Sendak’s already been transferred from two ships for fighting with his crewmates.  Every soldier gets three chances to prove themselves capable of the obedience and discipline the military calls for.  If a recruited soldier squanders their three opportunities, they’re dishonorably discharged and sent home in disgrace.  Haxus doesn’t know what happens to oblates--Galra cubs raised to become soldiers--if  _ they _ squander their chances, and from Sendak’s tone, he’s not sure he wants to find out.

“Well, he hasn’t,” Haxus says.  “I told him the other three picked the fight and he believed me, but he says you’re to remain in the brig for the next full quintant.”

“That’s not so bad, then,” Sendak says.  “I can live with that.”

“You shouldn’t  _ have _ to.  They picked the fight, they should do the time.”

“Ah, but who are they going to believe?  The good, obedient soldiers just going about their day or the savage monster with a history of violence.”

“You’re  _ not _ a monster.”

“Am I?”  Sendak huffs, disbelieving.  “Tell that to the people who trained me, then.”

Haxus sighs.  “I wish I could take you away from them.”

“You  _ can’t _ .  The military owns me now, and it’ll own me till the day I die.”  A choked sound, like a strangled sob, and a whine of metal on metal.  Sendak’s armor rubbing against the door, probably.  “At this rate, I’ll be  _ lucky _ to reach one-hundred and eighty.”

“You  _ will _ ,” Haxus insists, pressing his hands flat against the door and peering through the window near the top.  Sendak is out of sight, probably down at the base of the door.  “I promise you I’m going to get you out, by whatever means necessary.”

“...That’s treason,” Sendak says.  His voice trembles ever so slightly.  “I can’t ask that of you.  Not for me.  I’m not worth it.”

“Is that you or your conditioning talking?”

“...My conditioning.”

Haxus smiles, even though he knows Sendak can’t see it.  “I thought so.  You’re worth it, at least to me.”  He hesitates, then adds, “But I  _ am _ going to try through legal channels, first.  I’m not just going to steal you, much as I’d like to.”

Sendak chuckles.  Something thuds against the door, probably the back of his head.  “I’d rather belong to you than the military,” he says, and Haxus can hear the smile in his voice now.

“You’d belong to  _ yourself _ , dumbass,” Haxus says.  He’s glad the door’s in the way, now, because he’s blushing now.   _ I’d rather belong to you. _  He would rather Sendak was his, too.

“I know, I know,” Sendak protests, almost laughing now.  A pause, and then he says, “You aren’t actually serious about stealing me, are you?”

“I will if I have to,” Haxus says.  “When I leave the military, you’re coming with me.”

“Then keep quiet about it,” Sendak says.  “Don’t talk too loudly, or they’ll kill us both before you get the chance.”


End file.
